DON'T BUY INTO THE HYPE

Rating: Null/10 (14 September 2003)

On a personal level, I can say that not only did this movie make me wonder what some critics and the fan-boys here see in it, but not a single person I know who has seen it has thought it was any good. The few times it ever offers a "made you jump, ha ha ha" moment they are cheap and involve characters doing something stupid.
For the first 45 minutes of 28 DAYS LATER (following a forced, confused PETA raid sequence that doesn't work) it seems that Danny Boyle might have found a new genre to breath life into. SHALLOW GRAVE was the first top-notch thriller since DEAD CALM and TRAINSPOTTING was a return to enlightening while entertaining lower end economic social commentary pretty much abandoned in the mid 70's. So the promising start of 28 DAYS raises one's hopes, after the wise cracking and near parody of the ELMSTREET and SCREAM franchises, Doyle might have produced the first great horror film in a long time (since perhaps HALLOWEEN). Alas, Danny shoots his creative wad in those 45 minutes and the rest of the film becomes a tragic miscalculation attempting to meld a horror film with a ON THE BEACH/DAY AFTER lone human survivors infighting story.
One of the things the film first has going for it before Doyle looses his nerve and goes Hollywood is the unknown but very good actors he cast in the lead roles. One of the advantages of small films is the fact that their unknown casts help pull audiences into their worlds without the distraction of "Hey, its the guy from Dawson's Creek!" But then Doyle first uses Brendan Gleeson, then Christopher Eccleston to remind the viewer "its just a movie with that guy from GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS." Which is pretty ironic, because Eccleston was unknown when he did SHALLOW GRAVE.
For those who don't see that many films, this is certainly one to skip unless you want to feel disappointed and used by the publicity machine. An overhyped, stupid bore.